April 6-9, Charlotte NC

by Chris Ransdell

Monday was a pretty straight forward travel day.  In order to provide something to do during the day and avoid anything close to Atlanta, I routed us first to Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest point.  The drive there was relaxing and enjoyable but when we got near the Bald the road got higher and higher and the clouds got lower and lower until we were in a dense fog.  The visitors center was closed and the only other person we saw in the parking lot was the UPS guy who was friendly and chatty.  It was kind of a bust in terms of something to see but it did keep us out of Atlanta.


From the Bald to Charlotte was still a long drive and when we got there we headed to TGI Friday's for a great dinner. Our server, Katie, was amazing.  Our hotel was actually over the line near Carowinds amusement park in South Carolina.  The Best Western Carowinds hotel was pretty good and very inexpensive.

Tuesday we went for a little walk near the hotel on a gravel road between the hotel and I-77.  It was a very unloved little piece of land with garbage all over and a lot of interesting abandoned stuff around.  I needed to get a lot of hours in and in a way Charlotte marked the end of the road trip.  This transition was frustrating but we worked through it.  We also had an early dinner with Brian's niece Hannah, her son Angel and Brian's visiting from Vermont sister Diana.  Dinner was at Cheesecake Factory which is a place Brian and I both usually avoid because everything is huge there.  Since we knew it was the plan to eat there we planned our day around it and then ordered the lunch size portions of pasta and it was good.  We then followed them over to a park for some Angel play time.





Wednesday we met back up with Hannah and both her husband Angel and son Angel at Cracker Barrel right next to our hotel.  Such a nice family, it was really refreshing to see 20 somethings that were inspiring instead of annoying (I sound like such an old fart now).  Brian really enjoyed catching up with Hannah and had never met either of the Angels.  We wrapped up our Wednesday by going out to The Woodshed Lounge which was really fantastic.  A nice big bar with a digital jukebox, an outdoor space, a semi-outdoor space, pool tables and on and on.  It was way more than we expected and would be fun to return to.


So concludes our time in Charlotte. 

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